The Ancient Ones (The Legacy Trilogy Book 3) (66 page)

With its victory howl complete, the creature turned its attention to those who watched it. It lifted its huge leg and strode towards them, setting the earth to shudder.

‘What is that?’ Kali asked. ‘The monster has changed its form!’

‘No,’ Leopold said, for he knew the look of the blazing beast well. ‘Poltamir is dead. It is Samuel who has changed. It is too late. He has been overwhelmed by his demons.’

The burning giant crossed the shattered cityscape, each step spanning city blocks.

They stared at it, stupefied.

‘Quickly. Take him,’ Leopold said to Kali, urgency in his voice, grabbing Toby and holding him towards the woman.

She took the boy and set him down; then Leopold scrambled after. Kali was immediately away, loping towards the beast that was once Samuel.

‘What are you doing?’ he cried after her.

She slowed only to shout her reply over her shoulder. ‘I have to stop it. Run!’

As such, Kali sped towards the demon, impossibly outmatched, rushing to meet her destiny.

‘Come back!’ Leopold cried after her, but she did not listen. He wanted to run after her, but he would only be throwing away his own life as well.

He looked to the others hopelessly. Daneel stood dumb, his mouth open as he stared at the beast, his sword lying in the dirt where he had dropped it. Captain Orrell still held Rei by the forearm, but he need not have bothered. She pointed towards the beast and laughed insanely.

‘Come on,’ Leopold said to them, picking up Toby and preparing to flee. The demon was now only three of its massive steps away.

Toby did not wriggle as expected. He did something entirely unexpected, that momentarily wiped their impending death from Leopold’s mind.

‘Put me down,’ the boy whispered into his ear, his words clear and articulate.

Leopold stared at the child in his arms, then did as asked, gently setting him upon the ground.

Toby looked up at the demon, a single stride away and ‘Father!’ he called towards it. ‘Father, I am here! You have found me. Put your demons away!’

The beast raised its monstrous hoof to crush them—and stopped short, setting its foot aside, causing an avalanche of roofs. It bent itself over, hanging its devilish head over them, and the heat was scalding upon their skin. Its many faces merged into one, and it roared at them, blasting heat and noise. Then, the ghoulish red fire around it flared up, blown by a gust of wind—and the demon was gone.

Samuel appeared mid-air in its place, where its heart would have been, and he fell to the earth, bouncing on the busted street-stones like a dropped child’s doll.

They ran to where he fell, lying on the earth, smouldering like a quenched fire. His skin had reverted from stone, yet he was cut, scratched, bruised and beaten, his clothes shreds of cloth burnt to his skin. Yet he was alive.

Samuel gazed at the boy in disbelief, struggling painstakingly to his knees as Toby knelt beside him. Toby leant in and spoke closely, then Samuel threw his arms around him, hugging him tightly. Tears streamed from the magician’s eyes.

‘My son!’ he gasped. ‘My son! I have found you!’

‘What has happened?’ Orrell asked. ‘What does it mean?’ He had left Rei fallen into a heap, oblivious to the events around her.

‘It means we’ve found the Demon King,’ Leopold said in awe. ‘Or rather, he has been with us all along.’

‘Toby?’ the captain queried of his Emperor.

‘That’s right. Or so it seems.’ Leopold returned his attention to Samuel, and went to state the obvious. ‘Samuel, you have found—’

The magician’s finger snapped to his blistered lips, signalling for Leopold to hush before finishing the phrase that would summon Lomar. Leopold had not thought to say it. Somehow, it nearly slipped from his mouth unbidden.

‘Toby is Samuel’s son?’ Daneel asked, his single eye blinking with confusion. ‘Toby is the Demon King, the monster we have been seeking all this time?’

‘Apparently,’ Leopold replied. ‘Toby?’

The boy ignored him, instead helping Samuel climb to his feet. The magician’s face was smeared with soot and ash. He appeared full of shock, joy and sorrow all at once.

‘Samuel?’ Leopold ventured, for he was perplexed by it all.

The sound of feet approaching caught their attention, and Kali came loping back to be with them.

‘Kali!’ Leopold exclaimed, as the woman stopped to get her breath. ‘You’re alive!’

‘I am,’ she said, panting. ‘The demon stepped right over me to get to you. Where has it gone?’ She glanced around, ignorant of the recent revelations.

At that moment, it was Toby’s turn to fall. His body went slack, caught in Samuel’s arms. The boy’s eyes were shut, his mouth hung open.

‘What is happening here?’ Kali asked.

‘This is my son,’ the magician replied. ‘In another life, long ago, I named him Marrag Lin. He is the Demon King that would destroy us, yet he has driven back the demons within me and saved me ... and saved us all. Beyond belief, he has given us the time we need.’

‘Time for what?’ Leopold asked.

‘Time to save the world,’ Samuel told him. ‘It has begun. He readies to come amongst us. When he arrives, he will be not too dissimilar to the devil he has just defeated. If we do not stop him, it will be the end of us all.’

‘Then why is he helping us?’ Kali asked.

‘The part of him that was Toby was not the whole being. It was only a fraction of his essence, a curious fragment exploring the world it was about to consume. His essence now gathers around us, attracted by my newfound strength and the demons I contain. He has decided it is time to make the harvest. Toby is gone. The Demon King will be here very shortly.’

‘How could this have happened?’ Daneel asked, bewildered.

‘I am guessing a part of Lin wanted to rediscover himself, to see our world through human eyes, as he once did. We will ask Lomar. He is the one who will know.’

‘And where is Lomar?’ the eyepatched man enquired.

‘Until now, I could not find him, but I realise there is only one place in the world where he could be hiding.’ He looked to those gathered around him. ‘It is not quite over yet. Where we are going, I will need your help. I hope you can take this last step with me.’

‘Of course,’ Leopold responded for all of them.

‘But, Samuel, what of Jessicah?’ Captain Orrell asked, facing the troubled woman. ‘Is there still nothing you can do for her?’

Samuel gained his feet, passing Toby to Kali, and approached Rei, still sitting upon her dress on the broken street. With each stride, his robes reknitted themselves new, his cuts healed and his bruises faded. The dirt fell from his skin and it was the strong, vital form of the magician that overlooked his cousin.

‘Rei ... listen to me. It is over. Lin has returned. He is here, and I need your help. Let Jessicah free, and you can pass on. You will never be born again, but that is a natural fate not to be feared. Hear me. I have opened your prison doors. It is up to you to walk out.’

The woman looked up at him, attracted more by the sound of his voice than his words. Her confusion subsided and she closed her eyes. She looked afraid, as if in pain from a splinter being drawn out, but then it passed, and relief washed over her. She opened her eyes again, and it was Jessicah alone looking out.

The magician offered her his hand and, taking it, she stood.

‘Samuel,’ she said, her voice trembling. ‘I’m so sorry. She was too strong.’

‘It was not your fault.’

‘I feel so ashamed. I know it wasn’t me ... but part of it was.’

‘Then tell me, Jessicah, how to do you feel now?’

She paused a moment. ‘Free.’

‘Then it was not you, no matter how you felt. Those feelings were not yours. The shame was all Rei’s.’

She hugged him tightly, and the magician embraced her in return. When she pulled herself away, she turned to Captain Orrell hesitantly.

‘Samuel,’ the man asked, ‘is it really her?’

‘It is, David.’

He stepped forward and grabbed her into his arms, and she squeezed him just as fiercely. It was a deep hug, a desperate hug, a release of fears and hopelessness. Captain Orrell ran his hands through her hair, and his tears flowed. ‘Oh, Jessicah,’ he said. ‘I thought I had lost you.’

‘Never,’ she replied.

Leopold could not help notice Kali smiling contentedly.

‘Come, let us go,’ Samuel announced. ‘Our victory is not yet complete. The last of the Ancient Ones is dead. Only Lomar remains. ’

‘Where will we go?’ Leopold asked. ‘We have no ship. It was lost.’

‘We need no ship to reach our destination.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘We are going somewhere I have been before. I know the place well—where it all began. Pick him up,’ he instructed of Daneel, and the caped man retrieved his fallen sword and dutifully plucked up the body of Salu. ‘Give me the boy,’ he instructed Kali, and she handed the child to him without hesitation.

Leopold was about to ask a question, when the world shifted and the land of Euda vanished.

The Desert of Glass

AT FIRST, EVERYTHING was confusing. Total blackness engulfed them. It seemed they were bodiless minds floating amongst a nothingness, but as their eyes adjusted, it became apparent that stars were glittering above. Gradually, more details grew perceivable.

The broken city of Trithi was gone, replaced by a perfectly flat, featureless expanse. A shallow lake surrounded them, the stars mirrored upon its surface, slightly dimmed replicas of those above, extending all the way to the distant, curved, glimmering sliver that marked the curvature of the earth.

Not a ripple or wave marred the tranquillity of that lake. No fish or bird stirred. And those still, black waters ran from as far as the eye could see right up to their feet, where they stood upon its rigid surface.

The dim outlines of each other were visible—everyone present and accounted for. Samuel’s pale face was the only clear part of him, the rest more night against the stars. His son almost seemed to be floating in the air, cradled by two slender hands that protruded from midnight sleeves.

Leopold slowly turned full circle, taking in the scene, wondering where the magician had taken them. The others were doing the same, staring in puzzlement, their features vague in the near darkness.

Kali knelt down and rapped her knuckles upon the substance beneath their feet, sounding a solid tap. ‘Glass,’ she said.

Indeed, it seemed the surface surrounding them was not water, but a single flat sheet of glass that spanned the horizons, a mirror reflecting the heavens. It was unlike anything any of them had ever seen, a strange otherworldly landscape, completely silent.

Cool air brushed Leopold’s cheek—no sea breeze, for it was stale and dry—and it chose that moment to bluster, whispering as it swirled across the plain, carrying specks that bit their skin.

A flattened splinter of glowing white rose in the distance: the full moon, just edging above the horizon. Its upper portion was reflected beneath it, an illusion of an inflating ball.

Leopold rubbed his boots against the ground and found it slippery. A fine layer of sand gave him enough traction to stand, but it was not enough to fully obscure the dulled copy of himself that stared back at him.

‘Over there,’ Jessicah said, still clutching onto the captain and pointing with one arm, for a light had appeared in a dwelling a short distance away. Until then, it had been another spot of darkness between the stars.

Samuel passed his son back to Kali, who cradled the feverish boy, while Daneel continued to hold the body of old Salu across his shoulder like the carcass of a hunted boar.

‘Where are we?’ Captain Orrell asked with wonder.

‘This used to be Mount Karthma,’ Samuel told them. ‘We are in the middle of what was once the Paatin desert. The desert still exists, beyond the horizon, but here, it has been blasted into this. This is the heart of the Darkening.’

‘We’re back in Amandia?’ Daneel queried with amazement.

‘Yes,’ Samuel said.

‘What did this?’ Orrell asked. ‘I have never seen such terrain.’

‘Another magician called Cang summoned a stone from the heavens. It was his goal to destroy the Demon King, even though he knew most of humanity would be lost in the process. Luckily, that singular Starfall was averted, but the broken pieces still rained upon the earth and caused the Darkening. Some struck Garteny. Others struck further east. The largest piece landed here and the magical stone of Mount Karthma was transformed into this, a sea of glass. The place still retains its magic defying powers, so it is here that I could not find Lomar; until now.’

‘And what is that?’ Leopold asked, gesturing towards the tiny dwelling.

‘Our destination,’ Samuel responded.

A figure was standing outside the building, cloaked in black cloth that fluttered with the wind. As they neared, they could see it was Lomar.

He beckoned for them to come closer, waiting for them with a strange, welcoming smile. The deep brown skin of his face still retained the wrinkles of someone kind. His short grey hair and stubbled beard were speckled with grey, and he did not appear like any kind of foe. Indeed, if he was their enemy he did not act like it now. He was far more appealing in features than Samuel ever could be.

‘Come, come!’ he called to them. ‘You’ve all made it. Wonderful. Come inside.’ And he returned into his hovel, stooping over to get his tall form through the entranceway.

‘Do we follow him?’ Leopold asked.

Samuel nodded. ‘It is time for everyone to show their cards. This will all be finished soon.’

‘Are you not concerned, Samuel?’ the Emperor asked.

The magician did not answer immediately, and as he ducked down to enter the dwelling he paused and looked back to Leopold. ‘What will be, will be, Leopold.’

It was an honest answer, but not particularly reassuring.

Inside, the building was a single rounded room, with the most modest of comforts. A fire burned beneath a primitive chimney, yet the air was free of the smell of smoke. The room was evenly lit, rather than with the flickering light one would expect from such a fireplace. Some bedding sat against the wall with a bucket of water with some cups stacked beside it. A round wooden table took up the middle of the space with four chairs around it.